About the Centre

The Role of the Centre for Asian Studies Within the Faculty

The Centre for Asian Studies is part of the School of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Centre itself consists of three disciplines: Chinese language, Japanese language and Asian Studies. As an area studies department, the areas of knowledge we draw on are necessarily diverse. The broad fields of learning represented in the teaching and research specialities of Centre staff include: language, linguistics, literature, history, economics, philosophy, politics, international relations, sociology, and religion and art history.

General Aims of the Centre for Asian Studies

• To develop high quality teaching programs focussing on East Asia, especially China and Japan
• To carry out internationally recognised research on the languages, cultures, histories and societies of China, and Japan and Asia more broadly
• To develop innovative interdisciplinary program of study on Asia
• To cooperate with other departments in the teaching of interdisciplinary programs on Asia and the B. A. (Asian Studies)
• To maintain and expand communication with other tertiary institutions in South Australia on questions concerned with Asian Studies in the State, and to promote communication between them in these matters
• To maintain and expand communication on a nation-wide and world-wide level with university departments and institutes concerned with the study of Asia
• To facilitate the teaching of the Flinders University Indonesian Language Outreach Program at the University of Adelaide Campus
• To promote the understanding of Asia by the public at large
• To enhance desired employment outcomes for graduates
• To increase the number of our students who study or conduct research in Asia as part of their program of study
• To focus on students' total university experience

General Learning & Teaching Aims

• To provide a high quality and supportive learning environment for students
• To provide a sequence of language programs in Chinese and Japanese aimed at enabling students to use the languages to study the cultures, histories and societies of China and Japan. These language programs are offered both at the University and at Flinders University through our Outreach Program.
• To provide a range of key programs on Chinese and Japanese culture, history and society which complement the language program and lead to the development of honours and postgraduate programs which combine use of language and original source materials with social science and humanities studies.
• To provide foundation skills for research training